Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A stunning red, featuring peony, strawberry, cherry and mineral flavors, accented by notes of wild herbs. Intense and deep, with great purity and elegance, a firmly wrought structure and a long finish. The harmony between fruit, tannins and acidity should allow this to age beautifully. Best from 2019 through 2036.
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James Suckling
Beautiful aromas of dark fruits and minerals. Full-bodied, succulent and chewy. It's tight and stony. Lots of black olives and wet earth under the fruit. Bright and linear wine with beautiful layers.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Montosoli enthusiasts will not be disappointed by the 2010 Brunello di Montalcino Montosoli. This special single-vineyard expression shows a beautifully fragrant and floral bouquet that is exactly in line with what this firmly consistent producer strives to achieve. This wine represents one of the most distinctive expressions of varietal voice and that's what makes it so precious and rare. Sangiovese sings loud with small berry nuances and loud floral impressions of rose, violet and lavender. Its underlying complexity is further enhanced by anise seed, cola and licorice stick. The wine's texture is soothing soft and silky. This is one for your cellars to age ten years or more
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Wine & Spirits
The Montosoli plot sits at 1,250 feet of elevation, and in 2010 it yielded an intensely fresh and fragrant wine. Polished tannins frame bright flavors of red cherry and pomegranate, even some guava and nectarine, spiced with notes of white pepper and lifted by lovely floral aromas. The wine feels cool and elegant, with a freshness that persisted for days after the bottle was opened.
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Wine Enthusiast
From Montalcino’s most famous vineyard site, this opens with aromas of cured meat, grilled herb and a whiff of mature olive. The palate offers red cherry, licorice, savory herb and a mineral note alongside youthfully assertive but fine-grained tannins that need time to unwind.
Among Italy's elite red grape varieties, Sangiovese has the perfect intersection of bright red fruit and savory earthiness and is responsible for the best red wines of Tuscany. While it is best known as the chief component of Chianti, it is also the main grape in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and reaches the height of its power and intensity in the complex, long-lived Brunello di Montalcino. Somm Secret—Sangiovese doubles under the alias, Nielluccio, on the French island of Corsica where it produces distinctly floral and refreshing reds and rosés.
Famous for its bold, layered and long-lived red, Brunello di Montalcino, the town of Montalcino is about 70 miles south of Florence, and has a warmer and drier climate than that of its neighbor, Chianti. The Sangiovese grape is king here, as it is in Chianti, but Montalcino has its own clone called Brunello.
The Brunello vineyards of Montalcino blanket the rolling hills surrounding the village and fan out at various elevations, creating the potential for Brunello wines expressing different styles. From the valleys, where deeper deposits of clay are found, come wines typically bolder, more concentrated and rich in opulent black fruit. The hillside vineyards produce wines more concentrated in red fruits and floral aromas; these sites reach up to over 1,600 feet and have shallow soils of rocks and shale.
Brunello di Montalcino by law must be aged a minimum of four years, including two years in barrel before realease and once released, typically needs more time in bottle for its drinking potential to be fully reached. The good news is that Montalcino makes a “baby brother” version. The wines called Rosso di Montalcino are often made from younger vines, aged for about a year before release, offer extraordinary values and are ready to drink young.